But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ Let the one who listens, listen, and let the one who refuses, refuse—for they are a rebellious house.

He replied to me, “Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that.”

The time has come; the day has arrived.
Let the buyer not rejoice
and the seller not mourn,
for wrath is on all her masses.

“Or if I bring a sword against that land and say: Let a sword pass through it, so that I wipe out both man and animal from it,

“When you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of other countries, worshiping wood and stone,’ what you have in mind will never happen.

Therefore, son of man, prophesy
and clap your hands together.
Let the sword strike two times, even three.
It is a sword for massacre,
a sword for great massacre—
it surrounds them!

Pile on the logs and kindle the fire!
Cook the meat well
and mix in the spices!
Let the bones be burned!

“Son of man, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you with a fatal blow. But you must not lament or weep or let your tears flow.

I will abandon you on the land
and hurl you on the open field.
I will cause all the birds of the sky
to settle on you
and let the beasts of the entire earth
eat their fill of you.

Then I will let their waters settle
and will make their rivers flow like oil.
This is the declaration of the Lord God.

I will tend My flock and let them lie down.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

It is not for your sake that I will act”—the declaration of the Lord God—“let this be known to you. Be ashamed and humiliated because of your ways, house of Israel!

Now let them remove their prostitution and the corpses of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell among them forever.

“As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure its pattern,

“They may not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.